Photo Gallery

Kansas Women's Basketball vs. Nebraska

A photo gallery of the women's basketball game against Nebraska on Saturday night.

Senior guard Ivana Catic drove to the basket, pump-faked and converted the easy layup.

So why did junior Danielle McCray and assistant coach Tamika Raymond smile and laugh as the Jayhawks were running back on defense?

Photo Gallery

Kansas Women's Basketball vs. Nebraska

A photo gallery of the women's basketball game against Nebraska on Saturday night.

Because Catic hasn’t been doing a lot of driving, shooting or scoring this season. Therefore, you can’t blame Raymond and McCray too much — it was a bit surprising to see their pass-first guard looking to score.

“Normally when I come off a screen, I’m looking for a ball to come at my face,“ McCray said. “But this time I saw her coming and I didn’t know what to do.”

Catic hadn’t taken more than five shots in a game all year and had just 12 attempts in Big 12 play.

But in the Jayhawks’ 70-57 victory over Nebraska Saturday night, Catic took 10 shots and scored 10 points. After watching film with junior LaChelda Jacobs prior to the game, Catic said she thought could help the team more on the offensive end.

“I just saw opportunities to be more aggressive and get layups and get into gaps and get other people shots,” Catic said.

She was indeed aggressive, but she still reverted to her pass-first attitude a few times. On one possession, Catic stood wide open at the free throw line and turned down a shot. Coach Bonnie Henrickson said she still could have looked to score more.

“How many people are here?” Henrickson asked as she glanced down at the attendance numbers. “4,481 people are screaming to shoot the ball; 4,482 because I’m screaming for her to shoot it too.”

Catic isn’t a player who cares about how many points she scores or how many times she shoots. In fact, even though her 10 points was her season high, she said it probably wasn’t her best game of the season. She said she had only two assists and didn’t take any charges. Despite Nebraska coach Connie Yori’s claim that “the difference in the game was Ivana Catic,” Catic remained modest and skeptical of the statement.

“I just took what the defense gave me,” Catic said.

McCray was not expecting that response.

“I wasn’t surprised she was making the shots,” McCray said. “But I was kind of surprised how many she took just because of how unselfish she is.”

Catic said she thought her performance tonight may force teams to change the way they guard her. She’s used to teams giving her all kinds of space by now: they’ve been doing it for most of Big 12 play.

Oklahoma was the first defense that didn’t even guard Catic outside of the paint, challenging her to shoot from the outside.

Both McCray and Catic agreed that Catic’s performance Saturday might open up the floor in the future by forcing defenses to guard “one more step” closer.

— — Edited by Sonya English